On the day before John was to depart for Australia for his annual family visit, a wind storm struck. We had plenty of warning, and spent time taking down our umbrellas and making sure there were no loose garden implements that could fly around in the wind. We rounded up our headlamps and made sure they were working. We should have filled several buckets with water for washing and flushing, because in these parts, high wind = no power, and no power = no pump to retrieve water from the well. It was fine for the first 6 or 8 hours: we cooked excellent meals on the grill outside and boiled water for tea. We found ways to spin and weave with our headlamps on. But when there was still no power the next morning, we were missing our showers. Buckets of rainwater heated slowly on the stove provided a pretty good substitute. You can live without power, but it changes the pace of things–which is not terrible except that the rest of the world which is not without power seems to be spinning at a much faster rate and sometimes it is hard to step onto that moving walkway. Nevertheless, we made it to the airport and John is on his way to see his mother and sisters. Given that over 70,000 people lost power, we were grateful that ours was restored in just 24 hours.
